Barry Naughton: Is China creating a new type of economic system?

Barry Naughton, So Kwanlok Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego, presents his latest research on the Chinese economy system and discusses whether it represents an altogether new type.


Within the past decade, China has greatly stepped up the politicization of its economy and the means and scale of government intervention. This has shattered the presumption—widely held until recently—that China was transitioning toward a mixed market economy model similar to those in advanced industrial states. To what extent is China developing a new type of economic system that deserves to be understood and analyzed on its own terms? This exploratory talk will examine this question in two parts. First, it will look at the resources, instruments, and information flows that characterize the Chinese system. Second, it will examine the intentions and objectives which Chinese policy-makers display. It is this combination of power and ambition that makes the Chinese system distinctive.